The “Five Eyes” (FVEY) is one of the world’s most powerful and secretive intelligence alliances, made up of five English-speaking countries:
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Australia
- New Zealand
The alliance was originally built during World War II to share military intelligence, but it has evolved into a massive, permanent system of global surveillance, spying, and information control.
Today, it acts almost like a single intelligence empire — crossing borders, bypassing national laws, and gathering information on citizens, governments, corporations, and foreign rivals worldwide.
Origins of the Five Eyes:
- 1941–1946:
During World War II, the U.S. and U.K. collaborated closely to break enemy codes (especially Nazi and Japanese communications). - 1946:
After WWII ended, the partnership formalized with the UKUSA Agreement — a secret treaty for joint signals intelligence (SIGINT). - Over the next decades, Canada (1948), Australia (1956), and New Zealand (1956) joined as full members — creating the “Five Eyes.”
It was kept completely secret from the public for decades. The world only learned the details after leaks and whistleblowers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries (especially through the Edward Snowden revelations).
How It Works:
The Five Eyes countries share intelligence seamlessly among themselves. Each member:
- Spies domestically and internationally
- Contributes data from satellites, internet taps, phone records, emails, military surveillance, and human agents
- Receives full access to information gathered by the other partners
- Agrees not to spy (at least officially) on each other’s citizens — although Snowden leaks showed that even this rule was often broken
Essentially, if one country is legally restricted from spying on its own citizens, another member can do it for them and pass it along.
Example:
- Britain’s GCHQ could collect data on American citizens that the NSA wasn’t legally allowed to grab — and then share it.
- This allows all five nations to bypass constitutional or legal limits on surveillance.
Main Areas of Focus:
- Global surveillance: internet traffic, phone calls, texts, emails
- Military communications: monitoring troop movements, weapons systems
- Economic intelligence: gathering secret info on trade deals, industries, and financial institutions
- Political spying: tracking foreign politicians, alliances, or activists
- Counterterrorism: identifying and monitoring suspected threats
The Tools of the Five Eyes:
Some of their major surveillance programs and tools include:
- ECHELON (global satellite surveillance system)
- PRISM (NSA data-collection program from tech companies like Google, Facebook)
- XKeyscore (NSA search tool for almost everything a person does on the internet)
- Tempora (GCHQ program tapping fiber-optic cables)
- Upstream Collection (directly tapping internet backbone infrastructure)
These programs capture billions of communications every day.
The Five Eyes and Global Power:
The Five Eyes is not just about spying. It’s about maintaining dominance over information, which is the true currency of power today.
- Economic Control:
By knowing trade secrets, financial movements, and political shifts ahead of time, the Five Eyes countries can shape markets and influence governments. - Military Supremacy:
Shared intelligence enables rapid military responses, covert operations, and cyberwarfare against rivals (Russia, China, Iran, etc.). - Technological Hegemony:
The alliance works to protect and control critical technologies (AI, 5G networks, semiconductor industries).
In this way, the Five Eyes acts as the deep state’s global information weapon, defending the post-World War II western order — but also arguably undermining civil liberties at home.
Criticism of the Five Eyes:
Critics argue that:
- It massively violates privacy rights of citizens worldwide
- It serves corporate and elite interests, not democracy
- It operates in near-total secrecy, avoiding real accountability
- It has spied on political leaders (even allies like Germany’s Angela Merkel)
- It helped build the modern mass surveillance society exposed by Edward Snowden
Some even argue that the Five Eyes acts today as a kind of global oligarchic enforcement tool, suppressing threats to the dominance of the Anglo-American elite system.
Summary Table:
| Country | Intelligence Agency Involved |
|---|---|
| United States | NSA, CIA, FBI |
| United Kingdom | GCHQ, MI5, MI6 |
| Canada | CSEC (now CSE) |
| Australia | ASD (Australian Signals Directorate) |
| New Zealand | GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) |
Conclusion:
The Five Eyes is one of the most important but least understood forces shaping global politics today.
It represents the fusion of state power and corporate surveillance across five major democracies — built originally to defend liberty, but increasingly seen as a threat to it.
If we are to understand the modern world — the surveillance state, the erosion of privacy, the manipulation of markets and politics — we must understand the Five Eyes.
It is a direct descendant of the same commerce and global oligarchy networks that Thomas Paine, Christ, Paul, and the American Founders fought against — only now supercharged by technology.
